Minnesota Vikings 14, Dallas Cowboys 24

The bright side, I guess, is that the Vikings hung with the Cowboys from nearly the entire game and had plenty of chances to win. But the you look at how the Vikings actually played, and you gotta feel discouraged and frustrated.

After an initial drive in which the offensive line looked dominant on their way to matching the Cowboys opening score with an Adrian Peterson TD run of their own, the line’s play broke down and afforded little running room and less pass protection. Ryan Cook had a particularly bad day.

What’s most frustrating, though, is not the loss (which I thought was a given) but the lack of progress in Tarvaris Jackson‘s play. His accuracy is still suspect, both on short and log passes. He consistently throws behind receivers on short routes and consistently misses receivers on long routes. Though the ball should have been caught, a better placed toss to Bobby Wade would have resulted in a Viking touchdown.

He holds onto the ball far too long in a pocket protected by an offensive line that is not good enough to give him that much time. This may be because he hesitates so much when deciding where to put the ball. That hesitation affords defenders time to see where Jackson’s going to throw the ball and then react to Jackson’s intentions.

Our receivers didn’t have a great day, either. Every receiver failed to catch tosses they could have come down with. This team cannot afford dropped passes when they’re lead by a young, inexperienced, and inaccurate quarterback like Jackson.